Stock Photo - The Iowa State Capitol is the state capitol building of the U.S. state of Iowa. Housing the Iowa General Assembly, it is located in the state capital of Des Moines at East 9th Street and Grand Avenue. The building was constructed between 1871 and 1886. For thirty-five years before construction of the current building started, a three story brick building housed the Iowa legislature. Today's capitol is on the same grounds, and is the only five-domed state capitol in the country. The building is brick with limestone from Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, and Illinois. Iowa stone is the foundation for the many porticoes of the building. Both front and back porticoes have pediments supported by six Corinthian columns each. The dome of the capitol is gilded in tissue-paper thin sheets of pure 23-karat gold, with a protective layer sealing the gold from the elements, and the top of its finial peak is 275 feet (83.8 m) above the ground. From its opening in 1884 until 1924 it was the tallest building in Des Moines, and probably the tallest in Iowa.